Alone Again

By the time Falten and Tal'Ara left the Captain and Lieutenant to go on their date, T'Pren was officially sad drunk. She had her empty cup in front of her and was frowning at it, lost in depressing thought, as the two women went out of sight and out of hearing. Her leg still rested against Rai's under the table.

"The seem happy, don't they? I imagine a date may do the Commander some good," he said. He bumped her knee with his own.
"Why so glum?"

T'Pren didn't even really register that the Captain was talking to her until he bumped her knee. She lifted her heavy gaze to his and gave a weak smile. "Sorry," she murmured. "Just thinking." She shifted so that more of her leg touched his and put her little worn hardback on the table again, admirably attempting to perk up. "You were promoted today. You deserve cheer." She forced a smile that turned real fairly quickly. "What shall we do?"

"There are the holosuites, or we could drink our way into unconsciousness," he said. The latter was how he spent most nights.

It was a testament to how good Rai was for Pren that even in the density of her emotional state, she managed a buoyant grin at his suggestions.

"I'm up for either. You're the Captain, though. Your wish is quite literally my command."

"For now, let's drink, and be merry," he said. "Falten left the Romulan Ale bottle, there's only one thing left to do with it..."

"I have a head start," T'Pren pointed out. There was still a subdued quality to her energy, but Rai was the sunshine melting it away. Like Global Warming. He was gonna flood all her coastlines. "I already had a whiskey before you even got here."

She tilted her head at the Romulan ale bottle and then mischievously up at Rai. "I was thinking if she'd wanted to poison us, this would have been a good opportunity. We may as well help her out."

"I doubt she'll use poison, it's too obvious," he said, chuckling. "It's good though! Rich."
He sipped pensively.
"Just think, it won't be very long and this station is going to be brimming with fresh faced cadets and ensigns," he mused.

When next Rai set his cup down, T'Pren took the opportunity to fill it back up for him, leaving hers empty for the time being. He needed to catch up, after all.

She didn't look too thrilled about the idea of fresh-faced cadets. "Many of whom Regan and I were just beating a year ago in Parrises Squares," she pointed out dryly.

"I never got the hang of Parrises Squares myself," he said. "This is going straight to my head."

"We're no experts at it," T'Pren confided, pouring a little more into Rai's glass before adding to her own finally. "But these hotshot cadets would think we didn't stand a chance against them because we don't look threatening at all...and then we would out smart them every time."

The Academy, at least, was one part of her past the half-Vulcan didn't mind discussing.

"It's supposed to go to your head. That's the point." She sipped her own, well aware that when she stood up, she was probably going to be very, very drunk. "So, drunk Captain. Tell me something I don't know about you. Something I can't read in your file."

He rotated his glass in his fingers.
"I enjoy the temperate rainforests of Earth, but I miss home more. My favorite book is Milton's Paradise Lost. I have a little sister who's going to be a scientist like you. My favorite animal? The Flanarian bird."

Had T'Pren been sad earlier? She wasn't now. What had she been sad about? Her grin at Rai was delighted and affectionate.

"Paradise Lost is a surprising choice for a Betazoid," she pointed out, teasing but curious. "What's your sister's name?"

"Her name is Lora. I'm very proud of her," he said. "I like human poetry, their mythology is so poignant."

"Darren and Lora," T'Pren tested out thoughtfully, taking a sip of her ale to help swallow it down. "I used to beg my fathers for siblings," she admitted with a small smile. "I wanted them to make fraternal twins so I could have a brother and a sister." She rolled her eyes, "But my dad would always tell me I was five handfuls and they only had four hands, so how were they going to handle two more?"

Rai squinted at her, and then nodded confidently. "You'd have made a great sister, I can tell."

T'Pren made a face that clearly said she didn't believe a word Rai was saying. This face involved scrunching up her nose so that it had little wrinkles like a fake Bajoran. "How?" she demanded. "How can you tell?"

"Because you're loyal," he said. "And you're brave, so I can tell you wouldn't put up with anyone bullying your hypothetical sibling. You're kind, so I bet you'd get a long well." His speech was slightly slurred, but he stayed on point.
"I pre-gamed before I came down to the bar, you know," he added.

T'Pren pressed her lips together as Rai explained her sibling virtues, large drunken waves of gratitude and warmth and fondness for the Captain flooding through her. Better that than trauma memories, right?

She also blushed that minty green color and fidgeted slightly, moving her foot against Rai's. "Now who's flattering whom?" she asked pointedly, though she clearly didn't mind.

At the confession about pre-gaming, though a part of Pren filed it away for when she was sober so she could adequately decide whether or not to worry about it, she gave a lopsided smile. "So you didn't need to catch up. Why didn't you say so?" In solidarity, she downed the rest of her ale.

"Because," he said, blissfully tilting his head back and closing his eyes, "I like this Ale."

"Then you shall have more," declared the ever-loyal lieutenant, putting a little more in her glass and the rest of the bottle in his. She eyed his cup with a very serious frown once it was full, though, and picked it up to take a drink.

"Your cup runneth over," she explained, setting it back down in front of him now that it was a little more even with hers.

"Lucky me! We should try the holosuites now." he blurted. "I have a simulation of home, by the Opal sea. I want to look at the sky from the beach. Do you wanna go with me?"

The smile that bloomed across T'Pren's features was sweet and pleased, and it lit up her face in a fairly opalescent way. "Yes please," she agreed with soft enthusiasm. "I've been there, you know," she added cheerfully. "I lived in orbit for a year and a half when I was about ten."

She tilted her head at the cups. "We should commandeer these and finish the ale on the beach." She looked very, very seriously at Rai. "We'll tell Falten it's for Official Starfleet Business."

"Somehow, I think Falten is just a bit too busy with her new friend," he said, referring to Tal'Ara.
"I hope Falten sweetens her disposition," he added. He collected the ornate bottle of potent blue alcohol and their glasses.
"To the holosuites!"

"Have you noticed the way she just...switches on me?" T'Pren wondered aloud, scooping up her little book and trotting drunk and puppy-like at Rai's side. "Like when I first met her, she was very sharp and said I wasn't fooling anyone and called me a fake Vulcan but then suddenly she wanted to see my ears?" The half-Vulcan touched the point of one for good measure. "And she was telling me very sincerely how beautiful they are. Or last night when she was asking me about being a musician but then, wham! Suddenly she's grilling me about my relationship with Regan."